ߣߣ��Ƶ gains far more than China from the two countries’ collaborative research in the key field of artificial intelligence, a study suggests.

A new  says China is easily ߣߣ��Ƶ’s primary partner in AI research, contributing to 31 per cent of its AI publications – streets ahead of ߣߣ��Ƶ’s second biggest collaborator, the US, at 11 per cent.

ߣߣ��Ƶn researchers co-author only about 3 per cent of China’s scientific output in the field. “While China-affiliated researchers play a prominent role in ߣߣ��Ƶ’s AI research, ߣߣ��Ƶ-affiliated researchers are far less crucial to China,” argues the report, by the ߣߣ��Ƶ-China Relations Institute (ACRI) at the University of Technology Sydney.

AI lies at the centre of concerns that ߣߣ��Ƶn academics may be contributing to Chinese military technology, and consequently working against their country’s national interests, through collaborative research with China.

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Universities require permits to share and publish applied research in areas with military applications. In February, the federal government resisted a Department of Defence push to extend these controls to a broader suite of research topics in fields including artificial intelligence.

However, the ߣߣ��Ƶn Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has highlighted AI’s applications in defence and surveillance technologies. ASPI listed AI as a key interest of China’s defence industry conglomerates – many working with universities in the West, including ߣߣ��Ƶ – in a November  warning of the risks of collaborating with more than 100 Chinese research institutions.

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ACRI acting director James Laurenceson, who co-authored the new report, said that almost two-thirds of ߣߣ��Ƶ’s most cited AI publications in 2017 had featured researchers affiliated with China or Hong Kong.

“If you suddenly shut down that collaboration, ߣߣ��Ƶ’s output of AI knowledge takes a very sharp dive,” Professor Laurenceson warned.

He has also argued that a blanket ban on collaboration in AI would be unworkable, saying that such a broad and interdisciplinary field defies easy definition.

The ACRI report cites 2018 McKinsey  suggesting that the adoption and absorption of AI will account for around half of ߣߣ��Ƶ’s economic growth until 2030. It says that ߣߣ��Ƶ’s ability to create and use AI knowledge will largely depend on its capacity to connect with the US and China, the global leaders in the field.

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“In the absence of home-grown technology giants like Google and Tencent, universities are positioned as ߣߣ��Ƶ’s key actors in conducting research and creating AI knowledge,” it adds.

It says that Chinese researchers at institutions affiliated with the People’s Liberation Army contributed to just 3 per cent of AI research papers involving ߣߣ��Ƶn and Chinese authors in 2018, up from none in 2012 but down from 6 per cent in 2015.

“There is no obvious upward trend in the volume of such collaborations,” it says.

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com